Evernote 10
Evernote has changed in three key areas – its interface, editor function, and search
Free (Premium plan £4.99/month) FROM Evernote, evernote.com NEEDS iOS 13.2 or later
Evernote is a do-everything app that you can use to organise notes, to-do lists, web links, and documents. Version 10 moves it to a new codebase that promises improved stability, but it seems there are still some bugs to iron out – while Evernote was really fast on iPad we encountered some performance problems and crashes on iPhone (iOS 14.2.1).
In addition to the new engine, Evernote 10 has changed in three key areas: its user interface, which is more consistent across different platforms; its editor function; and its search features.
The multifunction New Note button gives quick access to note creation, images, recording audio, and sketching – and the formatting toolbar has been streamlined. You can use a range of text formatting, headings and tables to make your notes look better and read more easily. And there are now six font choices and 14 text colour options, and tags can also be nested.
The document scanning feature has been significantly improved. It can now recognise document types automatically, differentiating between Post-it notes, whiteboards and business cards and identifying the best scanning options.
Search now includes real-time search suggestions as you type, and you can filter by type. For example, you can search in particular tags or in PDFs, limit searches to notes containing specific kinds of data, or search between specific dates. You can also adjust the way the search results are displayed and their order, and you can save your searches for future use.
Everything for everything
Although we’re focusing on the iOS/iPadOS app, Evernote is at its best when you use it on everything for everything. There’s a desktop Mac app as well as a web version, and you can install the Evernote Web Clipper on Safari to save extracts or entire articles to specified notebooks. On iOS and iPadOS, the sharing happens via the usual system share sheet, which enables you to select the notebook and add a tag if you wish. The Web Clipper and iOS sharing tools are useful research tools and double as read-later services.
Evernote is available as a free app but the free version is very limited: it lacks OCR, you can only sync with two devices, there’s no offline mode, and the max note size is 25MB with a 60MB monthly upload limit. With Evernote’s Premium plan (£4.99 per month) you get unlimited device sync, PDF annotation, Office and PDF document search, custom templates, and a 10GB monthly upload limit with notes up to 200MB.
Evernote Premium is impressive and useful but the free app has limited features, and some power users claim that with version 10 it’s become too simple. But there’s a two-week trial that enables you to try Evernote Premium on all your devices to see if it’s right for you. Carrie Marshall